10 beautifully designed fitness apps for a healthy start to 2015

We have officially found ways to run almost every aspect of our lives using our phones. From communication and social interactions to managing time and money, from entertainment and gaming to education and even design, there’s no dearth of ways to improve our lives using these devices. So if we’re spending so much of our time relying on these programs, they better be good looking. No one wants to deal with a clunky, inefficient or just plain outdated app all day long.

Luckily, there are a lot of app designers out there who understand this, and apps are progressively getting better and better looking. Here we’ve selected ten of our favorites from one of the multitude of app categories — fitness. As we continue into the new year, not only can you be inspired by great design, but also find the motivation to get out there and get your body moving.

Argus is the master of organizing multiple different metrics in one easy-to-access and deliciously geometric interface. The program taps into your phone, using the built-in motion-tracking technology combined with additional self-measured statistics to create a collection of complementary graphs and charts outlining your overall fitness. For iOS.

This opacity-laced design allows users to find, sign up for, and track your favorite local exercise classes. The app is for a paid service, so though it is free in itself, you do have to sign up and pay for an account in order to use it. But if you’re the type that easily gets bored in gym classes and you’re constantly looking for something new, then this sleek app is a great way to keep yourself entertained. For iOS.

Fitbit enhances their simple colored fitness accessories (read: activity bands) with a similar health and fitness tracking app. Similar to Class Pass, the app itself is free but in order to take full advantage of it, you do need to own the hardware — the Fitbit Flex. If you do go with this option, your data will wirelessly upload to the whitespace-infused interface, and best of all will allow you to uniquely interact with other friends using the program — our favorite option is to “taunt” other people. For iOS, Android, and Windows.

Human is the exercise tracker with a soul. Its goal is to get you moving at least 30 minutes every day, automatically tracking different sorts of physical activity by using the phone’s passive location services. But rather than focusing on the myriad of statistics that many other fitness apps do, Human keeps it simple by using photography and animations to motivate users. To boot, the company also created this fantastic video showing off the kind of data it measures every day, and was named one of the Best Apps of 2014 by Apple.

Map My Fitness is a perfect go-to running and cycling app. It isn’t quite as artsy as a lot of the ones on this list right now, but the design has been getting better and better the longer it has been around. The pared-down business look works for it, letting the user access a ton of information about each run — statistics like mapping, pace, distance, duration, and now the app has expanded into tracking overall health, as well. For iOS and Android.

The thing about Nike is that pretty much everything they do is just beautiful. They’ve got this whole branding thing down, and their personal training app is definitely a part of that sleek fitness family. The combination of bold sans-serif type, clean athletic photography, and easily navigable information makes this really is your über-cool-kid personal trainer. For iOS and Android.

Maybe the simplest one of the bunch, Seconds is a one-hit-wonder in the best of ways. It’s an interval timer that helps you structure your workouts with a big bright display that uses your phone in horizontal mode, including only the information that you need. And all you have to do to set up this display is navigate through the easy options menu. For iOS.

Strava’s dark interface stands out in the crowd of mostly light-and-brightly colored apps that we’ve selected for this list. It does a lot of the same things as other fitness trackers, with maps and graphs and social interaction, but packs a powerful amount of data and is great for discovering routes created by their seriously dedicated community. For iOS and Android.

Yogify breaks down the complicated Yoga sequences that we all struggle through sometimes, so that you can work on your practice on your own time and with much less of a dime than taking group classes. It’s another conveniently targeted product — it doesn’t have a lot of extra bells and whistles, but allows you to pick the class that you want, and go with it. And it does so with a nice soothing color palette and choice of typography. For iOS.

Can I just say that this is pretty much the best idea for an exercise motivator that I’ve seen in a long time? I’m going to go ahead and call it the most creative on this list. Zombies, Run! Creates a series of missions where you follow a structured training program for your run, but have tons of fun doing it by pretending to go on missions to help you fellow man and escape from the zombies running around you. For iOS and Android.

Have any other favorite fitness app designs? Let us know in the comments!

The author

Kaitlyn is part of the Community Team at 99designs.com. She grew up in Boulder, CO and went to school at Northwestern University in Chicago. When she's not blogging, she spends her time having adventures and being generally creative. She's all about having new experiences as often as possible!